Sit Yau Fu’s two letters to a female friend named "Kate" in Holyoke, written shortly after he left the U.S. at the recall of the CEM in 1881, are preserved in typescript in LaFargue (Pullman). Passages from the letters are quoted in Rhoads (2011), pp. 179, 180, and 186.

Xue Rongyue 薛荣樾, 4th-generation descendant of a wealthy Malayan Chinese (Hokkien) family that had migrated to the southern Malay Peninsula in the 18th century. He was one of the first Chinese merchants in Amoy (Xiamen 厦门, a treaty port from 1842) who were British subjects. In 1854, with three of his brothers he established a shipping business in Singapore, "Jinxing [Kam Hing] Shipping Co." 錦兴洋行, with a branch office in Amoy. He contributed money for the founding of the famous Cuiying Shuyuan 萃英书院, one of the earliest Chinese schools in Singapore. The family was well known among the Chinese of Singapore: his son Xue Youwen 薛有文 was a comprador in the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank in Singapore; another son, Xue Youli 薛有礼 founded Lebao 叻报 (in Singapore: “Lat Pau”), the first Chinese daily newspaper in Singapore. Xue Youfu was his third son. Xue Rongyue died in Amoy in 1884.9

Following the destruction by the French navy of the Chinese squadron anchored at Fuzhou (“Battle of Pagoda Anchorage,” 23 August 1884), the Governor General of Guangdong issued an advisory to coastal citizens, including overseas Chinese in Singapore and Penang. They were urged to avenge the nation by taking such actions as stranding the French vessels and poisoning their provisions. When news of Xue Youfu’s death at the Sino-French battle reached Singapore in September, 1884, his older brother, Xue Youli, was so enraged that he carried the controversial advisory in his newspaper, Lat Pau (Lebao), of which he was founder and publisher. On 18 September the British Minister in Beijing, Sir Harry Parkes, protested to the Zongli Yamen, declaring that fomenting acts of aggression against the French by Chinese residents in the British colonial territories was a violation of international law and ethics. On the 29th, the Chinese Government issued an order controverting the Governor General’s advisory, and distanced itself from his incitement of overseas Chinese. Meanwhile, in view of its low circulation, the Singapore authorities decided not to prosecute Lat Pau, fearing that such a lawsuit might in fact publicize the advisory more broadly. They issued a warning to its editor, Xue, who apologized and vowed not to publish such incendiary notices from the Chinese authorities.13

5. “…There was a bitter rivalry in 1880 between the baseball nine known as the “Pine streets,” (for which a local mill magnate of to-day was the scorer) and the “Manchester Grounds” as the district now called the Highlands was then known. Sik Yu Pu [sic], one of the Chinese students, was the Pine-street pitcher, and a cracker-jack he is said to have been, having good speed and curves and fine control. It saddened old associates to learn…that Sik died gallantly in the…war with the French…. He was a spirited courageous youth, and very popular with his Yankee confreres.” "Holyoke's Lively Corpse…", Springfield Sunday Republican, 19 July 1908, p. 16. (Source courtesy Reed Tang.)

7. “…the most impressive ship to be built [at Fuzhou] during the 1870s was Yang-wu, a fully rigged steam corvette of 1393 tons…. Completed at the end of 1872, she was taken over as the Foochow training ship…. Flagship of the Fukien squadron, she was a prime target for the French at Foochow in 1884, where she was quickly destroyed.” Wright (2000), p. 40; Yung Shang Him (1939), p. 44; LaFargue (1987), pp. 73-75.